


[She's Not Your] Scarlet Lacey

by themanicpixieblackgirl



Series: Writing Between the Lines [1]
Category: Twisted (TV)
Genre: Canon Character of Color, Canon Het Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Getting Back Together, One Shot, rewriting the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-19
Updated: 2013-08-19
Packaged: 2017-12-24 01:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/933312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themanicpixieblackgirl/pseuds/themanicpixieblackgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lacey approaches Archie the day after the video gets out. based on 1x11 sneak peek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[She's Not Your] Scarlet Lacey

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't like the 1x11 sneak peek where they basically have her humiliated and groveling to Archie, so I rewrote it.

Some of the soccer boys are gathered by the big tree out front, and when Lacey walks up to Archie and says, “We need to talk”, Scott says, “Don’t you have a murderer to roll around with? You know, in a bed—  
"Scott." Archie interrupts, and the boys disperse.  
“Thanks.” She says, and he can’t stop himself from missing her. She is so small, compared to him, and she’s not wearing any makeup—he doesn’t want to think of how many times she might have cried since everything got out, but she still looks great. Because, that’s Lacey Porter; always perfect, even when she shouldn’t have to be.  
Scott was being a jackass, but that’s never made Archie stop him before. And for hooking up with Desai? He should be saying she deserves it, feeding the rage mill, but all day he’s been silencing everyone who’s brought it up around him—it doesn’t take much more than a glare, a simple “that’s enough”, and the whispers wait for him to leave before they flare up again. He, really, should want to see her hurt.  
But, he doesn’t. She was really into him, once. She was his, once. And, really, Lacey has been through a lot. She doesn’t let everyone in, and Archie doesn’t want to be left out when this all blows over. Because, it will. It has to. Danny is just a storm; he will pass—but Lacey? Lacey is an anchor, and she doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve to be wrecked. And with Regina’s death and her parents the way they are, Danny is just another tile on the stack of complications Lacey has to deal with, and Archie wishes that this were something else so that he could be the one by her side while she figures everything out. He wishes he didn’t have to hate her. But, he knows it’s not her he hates; it’s Danny. The guy walks back into her life, messes it all up, and now that he had been expelled, he doesn’t have to deal with any of the backlash.  
A part of Archie wants to pull her into a hug, take her back in time with him to kisses in the hallway and late night dinner dates before Danny Desai became the reason she was late to class and sneaking off at cemetery parties. He wants to hate her so badly. They were good together, right? Her smiles with him were real, weren’t they? it’s not like Lacey is one to fake a smile or stop herself from telling you what she will and will not allow you to do. Her kisses, her warmth, her smiles, they had to have been real. What he had with her had to have counted for something.  
So, here he is again: stuck at that place where he doesn’t want to see her hurt, but he doesn’t want to forgive her, either. He clenches his jaw and shoves his hands into his pocket so she won’t see him digging his nails into his palms.  
“What do you want, Lacey?” He asks.  
She says, “Nothing. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry. What happened between Danny and me was…I was confused. I—  
“When did it start?” He wants to know.  
“Sooner than it should have. I’d just finished going through all of Regina’s things, and I was just really overwhelmed, and he was there and he was confusing and we had five years of nothing to figure out, and he was new and novel, and you don’t just dismiss a key to your past like that—  
“You dismissed our past pretty quickly there, Lacey.”  
“I know, and that wasn’t fair to you. I’m sorry, Arch.”  
He flinches. That nickname hints at an intimacy that isn’t there anymore, takes him somewhere he shouldn’t want to be anymore, at least not with her.  
She says, “You shouldn’t have found out like that—actually, no one should have, but my point is that you were a really great boyfriend, and I’m sorry I hurt you the way I did.”  
If he doesn’t look her in the eye, he’ll be fine, and he won’t feel anything.  
“Thanks for the apology.” His words are terse, and the bite can’t be helped.  
She nods, gives him a tight smile. “Congratulations on getting to Regionals, by the way. Tell Cole and the rest of the team I said so.”  
Archie has to go to class. He reaches for his backpack and has to stop himself from pitching it to the wall. People are staring at her, but she walks away with her chin up and her stride intact. Because that’s Lacey Porter: perfectly perfect in every goddamn way.


End file.
